University of Oregon President: Social Justice Warriors Are Fascists

"[It is] ironic that they would associate fascism with the university during a protest in which they limit discourse."

Leftist college campus protesters fight against free speech, devoting themselves —sometimes with violence and the destruction of property — to the silencing of any opposing views and the shutting down of debate. In other words, they’re fascists. Having had enough of their bigotry, the president of the University of Oregon decided to call a spade a spade, in his recent op-ed for The New York Times.

In his column, Schill was responding to the disruption by social justice warriors of his state of the university address. He wrote:

Armed with a megaphone and raised fists, the protesters shouted about the university’s rising tuition, a perceived corporatization of public higher education and my support for free speech on campus -- a stance they said perpetuated “fascism and white supremacy.”

I have nothing against protest. It is a time-honored form of communicating dissent. Often, the concerns students express very much deserve to be addressed. But the tactic of silencing, which has been deployed repeatedly at universities around the country, only hurts these activists’ cause. Rather than helping people who feel they have little power or voice, students who squelch speech alienate those who are most likely to be sympathetic to their message.

It is also ironic that they would associate fascism with the university during a protest in which they limit discourse. One of the students who stormed the stage during my talk told the news media to “expect resistance to anyone who opposes us.” That is awfully close to the language and practices of those the students say they vehemently oppose.

“Awfully close” is an understatement. The leftist movement on college campuses around the country is one of totalitarianism, absolutism, and fascism. It is a movement to silence all but their own voices. It is a movement of ignorance — young people with no life experience who don’t know the meanings of the words they use are being worked into a frenzy by the same ideas which killed over one hundred million under the rule of Stalin, Hitler, and Mao Zedong. And oftentimes, they are being goaded on by theirprofessors.

Oddly, those on the Left are mirror images of their declared enemies: they are racist (against whites) while claiming to oppose racism; they are against the expression of opposing views, while claiming to be inclusive; they are willing to use force to accomplish their radical goals, while accusing the other side of violence; and they are bullies while claiming to be anti-bullying.

College campuses have tolerated the fascist radicalism of social justice warriors for far too long. Hopefully, other campus faculty and administrators will follow the lead of Michael Schill in condemning it.